First solo: Bill Lyons

We recently asked pilots on our Facebook page to share the story of their first solos. Here’s Bill Lyon’s story: I soloed at 7 or 8 hours instruction, from a then grass and gravel strip at Farmville Virginia, 68 years ago. My instructor, one Jesse Edwards, was substantially overweight; I was a 120 pound stripling. The aircraft was a 65 hp Piper Cub.

Jesse instructed from the front seat, as I recall, and his person substantially obliterated the horizon all around. One day without warning he got out and said “It’s all yours.” Gulp!

Advancing the throttle, within a second nothing was the same; there was no roll; the tail was up; I could see straight ahead; the airplane was 20 feet off the ground, loud, rattling, climbing, flying without my input, it seemed. My instant sense was that something was wrong and I moved the controls with some trepidation. I was at pattern altitude before I took a breath, it seemed. Throttling back restored some semblance of sanity to the situation.

I remember to this day thinking that if Jesse thought I could do it I’d go land on the first trip around the pattern. The landing was a smooth 3 pointer. I was ecstatic — have been ever since. The first solo was so memorable because of the marked difference in flying characteristics with the heavyweight instructor out for the first time.